"When she found boxing, she found something that defined her as a person," said Kylie Fallis, a close friend of Griffin's and a fellow boxer at the Hamilton Boxing Club.

Police identified 30-year-old Griffin as the passenger of a white Kia SUV that crashed early Sunday morning southwest of Glencoe.

The SUV was travelling eastbound at "a high rate of speed" on Concession Drive when it ran through a stop sign and skidded, leaving the north side of the roadway and striking two trees, police say.

The driver, 31-year-old Johnathan Smith, was also from Hamilton. Fallis said Smith was Griffin's boyfriend. Smith's family could not be reached.

Neither was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, and both were ejected from the SUV, along with a dog that died at the scene.

Both were taken by ambulance to Four Counties Hospital, where they died of their injuries.

Fallis met Griffin in 2008, when they both joined the gym within the same week.

"She's been the girl boxing with me since day one," Fallis said.

When Griffin joined the gym, Fallis learned that they both had kids — Fallis had a son, and Griffin had two children, a 5-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, said their coach, Brodie Boone.

"We were both just trying to do something that was for ourselves, get in shape," Fallis said.

The two trained and went to boxing shows together, but they also hung around outside of the gym, taking the kids to Emerald Lake or barbecuing at Fallis's house.

"(Her kids) were her everything."

If Griffin couldn't find a babysitter for her kids, she'd often bring them by the gym or to watch her local fights at Mohawk College, where her teammates would take turns watching them, Boone said.

Fallis said Griffin would sometimes train as often as three times a day, so it's no surprise she was undefeated — winning all 18 fights she took on, 10 of which she won by "stoppage," meaning she knocked the other fighter out, Boone said.

"Boxing wise, everybody feared her," he said.

Boone said he and Griffin had discussed her going professional before she turned 30, but she hadn't been by the gym in a couple months.

"She had a lot of inner demons, like anyone," said Fallis, noting that usually all it took was a phone call to bring her back to the gym after she had disappeared for awhile.

"She really cared about her boxing family," Fallis said. "Without Patti in my life, I probably wouldn't be the boxer I am today."